Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young eBook

A little girl, for example, undertakes to water her
sister’s plants. In her praiseworthy desire
to do her work well and thoroughly, she fills the mug
too full, and spills the water upon some books that
are lying upon the table. The explanation of
the misfortune is simply that her mind was filled,
completely filled, with the thoughts of helping her
sister. The thought of the possibility of spilling
the water did not come into it at all. There
was no room for it while the other thought, so engrossing,
was there; and to say that she ought to have
thought of both the results which might follow her
action, is only to say that she ought to be older.

Sympathy as the Origin of childish Fears.

The power of sympathy in the mind of a child—­that
is, its tendency to imbibe the opinions or sentiments
manifested by others in their presence—­may
be made very effectual, not only in inculcating principles
of right and wrong, but in relation to every other
idea or emotion. Children are afraid of thunder
and lightning, or of robbers at night, or of ghosts,
because they perceive that their parents, or older
brothers or sisters, are afraid of them. Where
the parents do not believe in ghosts, the children
are not afraid of them; unless, indeed, there are domestics
in the house, or playmates at school, or other companions
from whom they take the contagion. So, what they
see that their parents value they prize themselves.
They imbibe from their playmates at school a very large
proportion of their tastes, their opinions, and their
ideas, not through arguments or reasoning, but from
sympathy; and most of the wrong or foolish notions
of any kind that they have acquired have not been established
in their minds by false reasoning, but have been taken
by sympathy, as a disease is communicated by infection;
and the remedy is in most cases, not reasoning, but
a countervailing sympathy.

Afraid of a Kitten.

Little Jane was very much afraid of a kitten which
her brother brought home—­the first that
she had known. She had, however, seen a picture
of a tiger or some other feline animal devouring a
man in a forest, and had been frightened by it; and
she had heard too, perhaps, of children being scratched
by cats or kittens. So, when the kitten was brought
in and put down on the floor, she ran to her sister
in great terror, and began to cry.

Now her sister might have attempted to reason with
her by explaining the difference between the kitten
and the wild animals of the same class in the woods,
and by assuring her that thousands of children have
kittens to play with and are never scratched by them
so long as they treat them kindly—­and all
without producing any sensible effect. But, instead
of this, she adopted a different plan. She took
the child up into her lap, and after quieting her
fears, began to talk to the kitten.